The UNC Board of Governors approved the money Friday out of a scale of zero to $125,000.

For this year, Spellings will receive $45,000 in cash by the end of May.

The other half of her incentive pay will be put in a deferred account.

As an incentive, she would have to complete her term through 2021 in order to get that half.

The board chair says it was a subjective decision this year because the metrics are not in place like they will be for the coming years.

There will be a formula to calculate incentive pay in the future with percentages allocated to different goals.

Those goals could include access and affordability and increasing graduation and retention rates.

Spellings is the first person the board has agreed to pay incentives to and other leaders could get similar deals.

“The idea is, you know, no more just tenure-related increases. Performance will be based, I mean pay, will based on performance. I think that’s the philosophy of our board. We’d like to get to that with our senior management team and perhaps someday with our chancellors,” said Louis Bissette Jr., chairman, UNC Board of Governors

The Board’s plan to have Spellings’ goals for next year in place and approved at their May meeting.

She was hired in October 2015 with a salary of $775,000 a year.

Spellings left the board meeting before the incentive pay was announced.